FILE - In this March 25, 2015, file photo, Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna, right, speaks at a news conference in Long Beach, Calif. On Friday, March 2, 2018, Anthony McCall, a Southern California man, was convicted of killing 3-week-old Eliza De La Cruz, shown in photo at left, in a bizarre child-stealing scheme, according to City News Service. (Scott Varley/Los Angeles Daily News via AP)
March 02, 2018 - 9:02 PM
LONG BEACH, Calif. - A Southern California man was convicted Friday of kidnaping and killing a 3-week-old baby and shooting her parents in a bizarre child-stealing scheme.
Anthony Ray McCall, 32, of Oceanside, was convicted of murder, attempted murder and other crimes. He faces life in prison. His attorney argued during trial that he had been framed.
McCall snatched Eliza De La Cruz from her mother's arms at a Long Beach home on Jan. 3, 2015 after his friend followed the woman home from a bus stop, prosecutors said.
McCall also shot the girl's mother, father and uncle with a gun using a silencer made from potatoes, authorities said. All three survived.
When the kidnapping hit the news the next day, prosecutors said the baby was tied up in a plastic trash bag and dumped in a bin in San Diego County. She died from asphyxiation.
McCall stole the infant because his friend needed a newborn after falsely telling her married boyfriend that she'd had twins, prosecutors said.
The next month, McCall made a failed attempt to steal a 4-month-old boy in an attack in which the mother was beaten with a baseball bat in an El Segundo motel, authorities said.
The mother of the dead child testified Monday during McCall's trial.
Jacqueline Honorato said she pleaded with the kidnapper not to take her baby.
"I couldn't do anything to stop him," Honorato said.
She tried to chase him and said she heard the voice of a woman telling the baby, "I'm your new mommy."
"Did you ever see her (the baby) again?" the prosecutor asked.
"No," the crying woman replied.
McCall's friend, Giseleangelique Rene D'Milian of Thousand Oaks, pleaded no contest to murder and attempted murder in January and was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.
A third defendant, Todd Damon Boudreaux, 46, awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to being an accessory after the fact.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018